July 8, 2014

Square Feet

By ELIZABETH ABBOTT

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Like the rest of Rhode Island, this city of 49,000 people has experienced its share of ups and downs in the last decade, including a budget deficit of $7.3 million in 2011, which prompted the state to step in to temporarily manage its finances.

But one bright note in East Providence’s recent history can be found along its 14 miles of waterfront. Once used mainly by industry and blighted by gas storage tanks and various debris, about 300 acres along the Providence and Seekonk rivers are in various stages of remediation, and several residential and commercial developments have either opened or are in the planning stages.

“This is large in scope, it really is,” said Jeanne M. Boyle, the planning director for East Providence.

The city’s Waterfront Special Development District includes more than 25 development parcels that extend north and south of the Washington Bridge, which straddles the Seekonk River. The city’s plan for the district includes a mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses, with public parks and waterfront access integrated into the design.

To date, a handful of companies have either built facilities or expanded existing ones in a subdistrict that is not directly on the water. These include the Baer Supply Company, a wholesale supplier, which built a 100,000-square-foot facility in 2009 on a seven-acre site. Another is Aspen Aerogels, a Massachusetts-based maker of insulation, which spent $30 million to retrofit an abandoned factory. Ms. Boyle estimates that these and other new businesses have added about 500 jobs to the city.

But for the most part, these developments and others that are in the planning stages have taken place out of the public eye, and as the city strove to remake its waterfront, it didn’t look like anything was happening.

Then came Tockwotton on the Waterfront, a five-story $53.2 million senior care facility that relocated from Providence in January 2013. Situated on 10.5 acres just over the Providence line, in plain view of passers-by on Interstate 195, Tockwotton alerted people to the immense revitalization project that East Providence was undertaking, Ms. Boyle said.

“I think that was a turning point,” Ms. Boyle said.

A nonprofit home that dates back to Providence’s early years, Tockwotton accommodates approximately 150 residents in “households” of about 18. In these households, the residents have a private bedroom, bath and kitchen, but they share a common space, providing them with more companionship.

To make the site accessible, the city built a $2.1 million parkway called Waterfront Drive, which it plans to extend for other developments. It also worked with the Providence and Worcester Railroad to remove old tracks from the property. Since Tockwotton moved to East Providence, the facility’s executive director, Kevin McKay, said he had seen residents enjoy walks along a nearby bike path and other amenities that were not available to them at their former location.

“They just love it,” Mr. McKay said.

Tockwotton bought the vacant site in 2004 after reading that East Providence had formed a commission that year to oversee a newly created waterfront development district, Mr. McKay said. Established by state law, the commission vowed to make it easier for developers to invest in once-contaminated properties by, among other things, helping them get the numerous permits they need to build on a remediated site.

In addition, the commission’s enabling legislation permits the city to offer tax increment financing, or TIF, for infrastructure development, demolition, land assembly and acquisition. With these incentives, projected increases in local tax revenue from new developments can be used for site and area improvements, which make a project more affordable for a developer.

To date, two of these financing programs have been approved for developments in the sprawling waterfront district: A $17 million tax incentive for Village on the Waterfront, a $200 million mixed-use development that is expected to rise on a former tank farm owned by Chevron, and a $10.5 million incentive for Kettle Point, an $80 million residential project planned for 40 acres owned by the BP Corporation. Both projects have been approved by the Waterfront Commission.

“Without the TIF, this project wouldn’t even be close to happening,” said a Providence developer, Richard P. Baccari II, of Kettle Point.

Kettle Point typifies the problems that once made development of East Providence’s waterfront unthinkable. Used as a storage facility by Arco and Amoco, BP’s predecessor, it was dotted with oil tanks, which gave the waterfront a distinctly industrial appearance. Although the tanks were removed in the 1980s, they left behind a considerable amount of contaminated soil, which made the site too costly for a developer to consider.

East Providence knew it needed to provide an incentive, such as the special tax financing plans, to get that site developed, Mr. Baccari said. He called the expense of remediation “incredible.”

Perched 40 feet above the shoreline, Kettle Point will feature 407 residential units, as well as a four-acre waterfront public park and a 45-car public parking lot next to the East Bay Bike Path, which the city asked the developer include in the design. Mr. Baccari said he hoped to break ground on the project this fall.

South of Kettle Point, Chevron has teamed up with Providence Realty Investment, a local development company, to create Village on the Waterfront, a development with 600 residential units and about 30,000 square feet of commercial space. At the city’s request, the project will also include public amenities, such as a fishing pier and mooring field. Remediation is underway.

Michael Hennessey of Providence Realty Investment praised the city not only for making a tax incentive available for the project, which would not have been possible without it, but also for its long-term overall vision and enthusiasm for the waterfront.

“Usually the developer has the vision and has to sell the city, but this time it was the other way around,” he said.

Correction: July 14, 2014

An article on Wednesday about waterfront development in East Providence, R.I., misstated the location of the Washington Bridge and the location of the Kettle Point project. The bridge straddles the Seekonk River, not the Providence River. The Kettle Point project is near the East Bay Bike Path, not the East Providence bike path.

Correction: July 22, 2014

An article on the Square Feet pages on July 9, about waterfront development in East Providence, R.I., misstated the number of residential units planned for one project, Village on the Waterfront. The project is to have 600 units, not 400.